'Is NIDA ... churning out factory-like products designed merely to sustain the insatiable television demand for pretty - and disposable - bodies?'

ALEXANDRA ALDRICH does not believe she has spent the last three years studying at the National Institute of Dramatic Art ''merely to sustain the insatiable television demand for pretty - and disposable - bodies''.

Yet those are the words a former Liberal senator and NIDA board member, Chris Puplick, used to suggest the fate of Aldrich and her fellow crop of 2011 NIDA acting graduates.

More than just a pretty face ... Alexandra Aldrich has credited her studies at NIDA with giving her versatility as an actor. Photo: Lisa Maree Williams

In a speech to launch his Changing Times at NIDA essay at Currency House in Redfern last night, Mr Puplick questioned whether the acting school still produced well-trained actors under its new head, Lynne Williams.

''Is NIDA either drifting away from, or deliberately steering away from, an emphasis on producing talented actors for the live theatre in favour of churning out factory-like products designed merely to sustain the insatiable television demand for pretty - and disposable - bodies?''

You will now receive updates fromEntertainment Newsletter

Entertainment Newsletter

''NIDA is a great institution which I see in decline - I want to stop that and I want people to help me do so,'' Mr Puplick said in his speech, an advance copy of which was supplied to the Herald.

Last month the Herald reported that Mr Puplick had written an essay, published in this month's issue of Platform Papers, a quarterly series on arts and entertainment, accusing Ms Williams of having ''a Thatcherite style'' and no appropriate experience to lead Australia's leading academic acting school.

Mr Puplick said NIDA was generously funded by Australian taxpayers, to the tune of $40,000 a student - four times the amount given to other tertiary students. But changes to the acting course had led to ‘‘a dangerous situation where skills learned may not be put into practice for many months, if at all’’.

Yet since graduating from NIDA last November, Aldrich has performed with the Sydney Chamber Opera and had a cameo on Seven Network’s Home & Away.

She is now in Wollongong performing the role of Georgette in Bell Shakespeare’s six-month touring production of The School for Wives.

Aldrich credited her studies at NIDA with giving her versatility as an actor, helping her attract an agent and gaining the notice of Lee Lewis, her director in the comic play.

A fellow cast member, Meyne Wyatt, has also enjoyed success since graduating from NIDA in 2010, appearing in plays at the Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir St Theatre and Griffin Theatre as well as in the film The Sapphires.

‘‘It’s helped me get in the position where I can become something good in the industry,’’ Wyatt said.Both Aldrich and Wyatt said they had been taught by a mixture of old and new teaching staff.

‘‘We had a bit of both worlds,’’ Aldrich said.

Mr Puplick said NIDA’s failure to adequately respond to his criticisms indicated it was ‘‘not only intellectually bankrupt, but morally so as well’’. New short-term teaching contracts will ‘‘ensure the inevitable decline of both teaching standards and the maintenance of the unique NIDA style so vital to its historical and, I believe, future success,’’ he said.

He also claimed he had been told ‘‘it was important for NIDA to, in effect ‘move beyond a fixation with Cate Blanchett and Mel Gibson’.’’

He challenged Ms Williams to debate his criticisms of her management style.

Mr Puplick’s essay was to be launched by the actor Jeremy Sims, a 1990 NIDA graduate, who said the acting school was successful in the realm of technical production but was ‘‘woefully inadequate’’ in providing its acting graduates with meaningful work.

After saying he would leave Mr Puplick to prosecute his argument, Sims said: ‘‘It would seem at the very least that too many people with too much experience have left [or] been pushed from the one place in too short a time for it to be good for anybody.’’